


Homeland

by LoneStar



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: BAMF Sans, Canon Divergence, Frisk Needs A Hug, Frisk is a guy so what, I'm Bad At Tagging, M/M, Post-Apocalyptic, Rating May Change, Selectively Mute Frisk, Slow Burn, Tags May Change, Time Skips, W. D. Gaster Being An Asshole, above ground is awful, asgore is crazy, everyone might die, send help, underground is creepy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-04
Updated: 2017-04-29
Packaged: 2018-10-14 17:37:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10541298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LoneStar/pseuds/LoneStar
Summary: Frisk goes missing, the barrier breaks, and everyone comes to realize it's best if some things stay separate.





	1. Breaking Through

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Work is slow. Sans hunts for a customer. Things get complicated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thought I should square away a few formatting quirks I have. By default, any text you see are Sans thoughts. Italicized sentences are actions, bold words are for emphasis, and quotation marks are spoken words.

5 hours.

  
5 damn hours.

  
And not one customer to show for it.

  
Sure, running a hotdog stand in the sweltering caverns of the Core isn't the most sound business practice, but there are always a lotta visitors. Ok well, there are at least a few.

  
Fine

  
So what if it was only ever Frisk? Sure, the kid wasn't much for conversation. But I've yet to meet someone else willing to let me stack 27 hotdogs on their head. That, and he bought out my entire stock. I didn't even realize I could run out until they were gone. Where does that kid get all his money anyways? Whatever, he's got his perks.

  
But today is-  
Different.

  
I can tell. I stopped by MTT to check on Bratty and Catty, hoping to see if they'd spotted Frisk anywhere. But they haven't. Never even met him before apparently, which is strange because I know I introduced them, just two days ago.

  
Weird. Maybe Frisk is back home, with Paps? It's worth checking.

  
_Sans take a shortcut to his front door, calling out as he enters_ :

  
"Papyrus! Frisk! Anyone home? It's been awful bonely at work and I was wondering if you needed someone humerus around?  
Guys?"

  
Damn, neither of them are here. I know Paps wasn't planning anything today, after Undyne canceled their cooking sessions indefinitely on account of her house burning down. Crazy kids.

  
God, there's really no place I can think of where those two would be, unless-

  
Unless Frisk did it. Crap, crap, crap. I told him not to run off to the palace, he's just gonna get himself killed. Why can't that kid listen? I swear, if Asgore did anything to hurt him...

  
_As Sans takes a shortcut into the Kings Garden, the air is filled with the sound of glass breaking, and all the flowers bend against an unseen shockwave._  
_Sans runs to the back of the palace, trampled flowers lying in his wake._

  
_He skids to a stop, looking up in awe at the sunlight streaming in, a distant breeze cooling his face._

  
_The barrier has been broken._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is my 2nd ever work, and my first multi-chapter work. English is not my first language so bear with me if it's not great, I'm trying to get better. I'm open to suggestions and please please please call me out on any mistakes I may make. I just had this idea and needed to get it out.  
> Don't have much going on so I'll try to update every day or two. Chapters will be longer as I find my groove. 
> 
> Here's hoping.


	2. Ruin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans gets a few things squared away, and with multiple leads as to Frisk's whereabouts, things are looking up. As the monsters egress the underground however, Sans realizes a lot has changed on the surface in the centuries since they were banished.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2nd chapter is up! After spending 4 hours today agonizing over it, writing and re-writing, i finally got my thoughts schooled together enough. Be warned that there are some inconsistencies between past and present tense, due to me not translating/learning those well. I'll come back and edit this later today or tomorrow. Enjoy!

Watching the flowers bend in the breeze, the once-cold stone walls of the palace bright and warm from the sun-

  
A lot of things came rushing back, y'know?

  
Seeing the opening to the outside world, feeling it beckoning to me. Of course I'm expecting that things have changed, you can't spend hundreds of years underground pretending that time isn't passing above you. Pretending that people aren't growing and dying. That mankind would ever be content to sit still.

There was a time when all I truly hoped for was acceptance. Hell, that's why I was thrown down here in the first place. Why we were all banished to the Underground. But you can't keep the hope of change alive forever.

  
But that was then. I dunno **what** I want now. Being trapped down here for so long, everyone just kinda got used to each other. We built our way back up, back to what we once were on the surface. Now that there's nothing keeping me- us, here, I thought I'd want to run free, see what has changed and what has stayed the same.

  
God what am I even thinking. Frisk. Frisk is gone. Asgore had the six souls, and those creepy-ass coffins mere feet from his garden. He was never stupid enough to store the souls there, lest they be stolen.  
But he **did** store some things in there.  
I'm just praying Frisk isn't one of them

  
_Sans turns from the hole to the surface, the light and the warmth chasing his back as he walks through the empty courtyard. A cheering is heard off in the distance, coming closer by the minute._

  
_Turning the corner into the room of coffins, a hoard of monsters rushes through the halls of the palace, seeking the exit._

  
Red, red, red. Frisks soul is red, where's his coffin? Blue, green, purple, yell-

  
oh.

  
Please don't be there, please don't be there, please...

  
_Sans pushes the lid off of the coffin, revealing..._

  
Nothing‽ I suppose that's good. Still doesn't explain where that kid could be, much less where Asgore might be. I was the first one here after the barrier broke, Asgore can't be that far ahead or behind. And where Asgore is, I'm sure Frisk is nearby.

  
Wait a minute.

  
_He inspects the coffin further, feeling along the edges as well as the bottom. His hand comes out covered in a layer of fine black dust_

"Yuck"

  
_The skeleton attempts to wipe it off on his shorts, to no avail_

 

The hell is this stuff? It-it seems familiar. Are all the coffins lined with this?

  
_He opens the other coffins, the stench of decay flooding the room as he stares down at decomposed bodies, but nothing else_

  
Just his coffin, huh. This doesn't feel right. I **know** this stuff, I do. I just-

  
_A barely visible trail of dust catches Sans attention. He follows it, dismayed as he realizes it leads to where the barrier once stood._

  
Lets face it. The kid could be anywhere. I can't sense him like I used to, but I'm sure Frisk isn't dead. That dust in his coffin is the only lead, and as much as I need to follow it and find him, there are monsters here who need my help. If I can find Paps, and assure his safety, then I can look for Frisk without worry.

  
Well, any more worry than I already have.

  
_Sans runs through the tunnel to the outside, passing monster after monster, all whispering and shouting and equally amazed at the sights and sounds they must all imagine are ahead. Sans spots Papyrus in the crowd, trotting over to him_

  
"Hey Paps, you, uh, you seen Frisk?"

  
"FRISK? NO, HE LEFT SHORTLY AFTER OUR MORNING SPAGHETTI. SAID SOMETHING ABOUT PLAYING WITH MONSTERKID. BUT, SANS, ARE YOU SEEING THIS?"

  
Monsterkid? Geez, haven't even thought about him. I should find him first once Papyrus is safe. Last person to see Frisk has gotta have some answers...

  
"Yea bro, I see it. Pretty impressive, I know. But I reallllly need to find Frisk, and you should probably head back home"

  
"HOME? HOME??? SANS, WE'VE BEEN TRAPPED DOWN HERE FOR CENTURIES, EVERYONE ELSE WILL BE EAGER TO LEAVE. AREN'T YOU?"

  
"No no, I'm just as happy to get outta here as the next guy, but something is wrong Paps. Frisk is missing and I can't feel him anywhere. And who knows what's out there!"

  
_Sans points to the tunnel, squinting in the sunlight as he continues to push_

  
"Alright, alright. If we go up to see what it's like, you gotta promise me you'll head back home and wait for me, okay? We don't know what it's like up there, and if our last experiences from aboveground are any indication, none of us should be eager to go back."

  
"FINE. I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, SHALL ACCOMPANY YOU ABOVE GROUND."

  
"Mhm, and then?"

  
"AND THEN I'LL HEAD HOME AND PREPARE DINNER FOR EVERYONE"

  
"Good enough for me. C'mon."

  
_Papyrus grabs Sans and swings him up onto his shoulders, running past the growing crowd, chasing the sunlight._  
_The brothers reach the end of the tunnel, and as their eyes adjust, Sans hops onto the ground beside Papyrus._

  
"How long were we down there for?"

  
"ALPHYS TOLD ME IT'S BEEN TWO HUNDRED YEARS, THEREABOUTS"

  
_Sans shakes his head, mouth ajar as he stares out across the wooded valley before him. Everywhere he looks he sees destruction. Half the forest is burned, there's a gaping crater in the side of the mountain below them. A ruined city is visible beyond the treeline, spewing smoke. He can see a river running from the mountain above them down into the valley, but the water is stained a muddy copper color, and the smell leaves Sans reeling even from here._

  
"SANS, WAS IT- WAS IT LIKE THIS WHEN WE LEFT?"

  
"No"

  
This is much, **much** worse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, I'll try to fix any and all errors regarding tense, syntax, grammar and whatnot. Also, whenever I post a new chapter, I go back and edit the previous one. Just small things and errors I didn't catch during my initial edits.


	3. Brief Memories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans retells parts of the past, Paps goes home to safety, and Sans heads out to find Frisk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the short chapter. School's been crazy lately. But I finished drafting out the lore changes/background/future to the story! Now I just gotta make it exciting and consistent...  
> already working on the next two chapters, they'll be up soon, promise.  
> Hope you enjoy!

I wish I could say we left it at that, that the monsters trudged back underground once they realized the world wasn't quite ready for us-

for them.

But they didn't. They were walking out and preparing to explore their own destruction.

  
Y'see, aside from Alphys, Asgore, Undyne, and Toriel, none of the monsters of the Underground had any memories of what life had been like on the surface. It was us, the chosen few, that needed to keep those memories locked away, but never forgotten.

  
Life had been better. Sure it wasn't perfect, what with constant discrimination and an alarming increase in hate crimes. We all knew something big was coming, and once word of a war got out, there was no going back..but none of us would have expected mass incarceration thousands of feet below the humans we had coexisted with for centuries beforehand. For us, life on the surface had been all we'd ever known...but after the banishment, the barrier went up and we had to acclimate to subterranean life. Since then, the Underground was all many monsters had ever known. And we'd all made the best of it. The only sign that something was off, that any of us were aware of the past at all, were the occasional glances and unease anytime someone brought it up.

  
Even as we grew and changed the Underground, there was always the nagging fact that less than 1% of the population remembered life on the surface.

  
I guess it was better that way.

  
_Sans turned away from the destruction before him, soul and mind racing. All around him, he saw monsters standing back with a mixture of shock and excitement. Only a few familiar faces, those of Alphys and Undyne, were horrified, their memories not matching up with what was before them._

  
"Yo, Paps, you had your look. Now we realllllly gotta go."

  
"SANS! WHAT'S WRONG? WHAT'S DIFFERENT??? THIS LOOKS FINE TO ME. CAN'T WE GO OUT AND EXPLORE A BIT? PLEASE...?"

  
"No. Frisk is out there in-in that **hell**  somewhere, and you promised you'd let me look for him while you made food. Remember?"

  
"BUT THIS IS AWES-"

  
That's it. I can't afford to waste any more time...

  
"Sorry about this, bro."

  
_Grabbing Papyrus' hand, Sans took a shortcut back home, dropping the both of them on the couch. After turning to give his brother a hug, he stepped away and warped back to the surface._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapters will be longer. Sorry this was so short and didn't really explain/add much. It'll get better  
> Kudos & Criticism give me life.  
> Updating again asap.


End file.
